AI database startup Pinecone names new CEO as founder Edo Liberty steps back to become Chief Scientist
Ash Ashutosh, a veteran entrepreneur, takes the helm to accelerate Pinecone’s growth, while Liberty shifts focus to advancing the company’s scientific vision of making AI “knowledgeable.”
Pinecone, the Israeli-founded company that helped define the vector database market, is entering a new chapter. The startup announced the appointment of tech veteran Ash Ashutosh as CEO, while Israeli founder Edo Liberty transitioned into the role of chief scientist.
The move marks a pivotal moment for Pinecone, which has been at the center of the AI infrastructure boom. Liberty, a former head of Amazon’s AI lab, built Pinecone around the idea that artificial intelligence systems need a reliable way to store and search vast amounts of vector data, the dense numerical representations that power large language models and generative tools. As chief scientist, Liberty will focus on advancing that mission, which the company described as nothing less than “making AI knowledgeable.”
Ashutosh, who previously built and scaled enterprise technology companies, takes the helm at a time of heightened competition in the vector database sector, as companies from cloud giants to database incumbents eye the same space.
The leadership reshuffle comes after reports surfaced last week that Pinecone was exploring a potential sale, following the loss of Notion, one of its flagship customers. While no deal has been announced, the company has been in discussions with bankers to consider options ranging from acquisition to further capital raising, according to The Information. Potential buyers floated in those talks included Oracle, IBM, MongoDB and Snowflake.
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Founded in 2019, Pinecone quickly established itself as a cornerstone of the AI ecosystem. Its vector database enables developers to build faster, more accurate AI applications, and has been adopted by more than 5,000 customers across industries. The company has raised $138 million from backers including Andreessen Horowitz, ICONIQ, Menlo Ventures and Wing Venture Capital, and operates from offices in New York, San Francisco and Tel Aviv.
